Found! China’s Lost Civilization: A Feast for the Senses with the Pacific Symphony

Bowers Museum presents a unique evening centered around the exhibition titled China's Lost Civilization: The Mystery of Sanxingdui.

6 pm – 7:30 pm           Music, Exhibition Viewing, & Reception
7:30 pm – 9:30 pm      Dinner and Performance

Join us for an enchanting evening centered around our special exhibition, China's Lost Civilization, with music curated by Chinese American composer Dr. Huang Ruo and featuring world-renowned pipa player Zhou Yi with an ensemble of Pacific Symphony musicians. Reception and authentic Sichuan Province inspired dinner & dessert presented by our award-winning restaurant, Tangata.

Preview dinner menu here.

TICKETS: $100 per guest. Advanced reservations required by February 3. Museum admission is included.
Tickets: Online here, Onsite, Reservation Line 714.567.3677, or email programs@bowers.org with any questions.

Tickets are non-refundable. All proceeds benefit Bowers Museum Educational Programming. Sponsored by The James Irvine Foundation and presented in partnership with the Pacific Symphony.

ZHOU Yi
Praised for her "breathtaking" meticulous technique and expressiveness by the Washington Post, pipa (lute) virtuoso Zhou Yi started to learn music at the age of five. After graduating from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Zhou Yi moved to New York. As a concert soloist, her performances include Tan Dun's Concerto for Pipa and String Orchestra at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig Germany; Young People’s Concert with the New York Philharmonic; Bun-Ching Lam’s Pipa Concerto "Song of the Pipa”; “Sisters of the Grassland” with the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra (Ohio). Zhou Yi collaborated with Damon Albarn (Gorillaz/ Blur) in Spoleto Festival's premiere show, Monkey: Journey To The West. Her recent performances include: featured pipa soloist of Tan Dun's "Map" in 2014 NYU's Vision & Voices Series; played pipa and guqin with the Santa Fe Opera for the new contemporary production Dr. Sun Yat-sen composed by Huang Ruo; recorded the music for David Henry Hwang's two offbroadway productions, "The Dance and the Railroad" and "Kung Fu (The Bruce Lee Story)". She also worked on "Around the World in 80 Days" and Carnegie Hall's "Musical Explorer" program. Zhou Yi is a co-founder of the Ba Ban Chinese Music Society. She currently resides in New York.

HUANG RUO
Awarded First Prize by the Luxembourg International Composition Prize, Huang Ruo has been cited by the New Yorker as "one of the world's leading young composers" and "one of the most intriguing of the new crop of Asian-American composers." His vibrant and inventive musical voice draws equal inspiration from Chinese ancient and folk music, Western avant-garde, rock, and jazz to create a seamless, organic integration using a compositional technique he calls "dimensionalism." Huang Ruo's writing spans from orchestra, chamber music, opera, theater, and modern dance, to sound installation, multi-media, experimental improvisation, folk rock, and film. Ensembles who have premiered and performed his music include the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, National Polish Radio Orchestra, Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera. New York City Opera, Opera Hong Kong, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Asko Ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, Remix Ensemble, Quatuor Diotima, and Ethel Quartet, and under conductors such as Wolfgang Sawallisch, Marin Alsop, Michael Tilson Thomas, James Conlon, Dennis Russell Davies, Ed Spanjaard, Xian Zhang, and Ilan Volkov. Huang Ruo's opera Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, has recently given its American premiere by the Santa Fe Opera in 2014, and will be given its Canadian premiere by the Vancouver Opera in 2016. His next opera, Paradise Interrupted, commissioned by and world-premiere given by the Spoleto Festival USA in 2015 and the Lincoln Center Festival in 2016. Huang Ruo was born in Hainan Island, China, in 1976. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, when China was steadily opening its gates to the Western world, he received both traditional and Western education at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music admitted into its composition program at the age of twelve, studying with his mentor Professor Deng Erbo. After winning the Henry Mancini Award at the 1995 International Film and Music Festival in Switzerland, he moved to the United States to further his education. Since then, he has earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in composition from the Juilliard School. He is the artistic director and conductor of Future In REverse (FIRE), and was selected as a Young Leader Fellow by the National Committee on United States–China Relations in 2006. www.huangruo.com